This episode is the episode of the Stark children – so let’s
cover the others first:
Over in Meeren, Tyrion is quite happy that his newly
brokered peace actually seems to be holding – being a consummate politician he
decides to double down and follow up with a PR coup. They need a powerful, well respected and incorruptible
body to spread the wonders of Daenerys far and wide.
He reaches out to the Red Priests. Who quite like
Daenerys because the whole rising from fire thing really resonates with
supporters of R’hollor. There are two downsides though which Tyrion may not
have considered and could come back to bite them all:
1) The Red priests are fanatics and not into religious
tolerance. Daenerys’s empire is cosmopolitan and she intends to stretch it to
the Seven Kingdoms as well – having people on side who like to burn the sinners
and unbelievers is going to be damn hard to handle
2) The Red Priests also have terrifying woo-woo as we’ve
seen before and as the priestess demonstrates again with Varys. Varys loathes
her with the super fiery passion of a thousand suns.
This may backfire on Tyrion.
At the Iron isles we have Theon, sort of son of the
Starks, pledging his full support to Yara at the kingsmoot to choose the new
ruler. He rejects any chance to make him king (though some tried) and gives an
epic speech for Yara. Yara also has an epic yet brutally honest speech about
the Iron Born – great sailors but not up to taking the soldiers of the
mainland. They raid until they become too annoying then they get squished (as
has been recently seen). They need a new tactic and a new vision. Her vision
includes a gazillion ships
Unfortunately in comes uncle Euron to claim the throne. I
curse him because I want Yara to be queen but his plan: to ally with Daenerys
(who badly needs a fleet) actually makes more sense. Ultimately Yara and him
could both see the problem but only Euron really has a solution – her plan of a
thousand ships was basically more raiding and destruction. Euron has a solution
and Euron was also the one who ended the disastrous war by killing the last,
useless king. I can see why he’s convincing.
In the North Sansa is showing more and more steel.
Baelish arranges a visit with her and she chews him out epicly for selling her
to Ramsay. He cannot possibly have been this ignorant of Ramsay’s nature and
she lets him have it with both barrels. Go Sansa. She does learn that her uncle
has retaken Riverrun – that the Tullys have an army again.
At the war planning she’s also there with solutions for
Davos and John Snow’s doubts about how to retake the north (though Davos has
some excellent points about how people tend not to be special and relying on
the Northern’s super special loyalty is flawed). She sends Brienne to Riverrun
to rally the Tullys while she plans to do a tour of the Northern houses to
rally as much support for the Stark name as they can (a name she carries even
if Jon doesn’t).
Jon may end up being the new lord Stark, but it is Sansa
who has come through the flames and it is she who will lead the resurgence of
House Stark. Oh Sansa, I love this turn around, I love to see her rising from
everything she has endured.
Also note that she doesn’t tell her brother about Baelish
– she is keeping him and the Knights of the Vale in reserve, she is keeping an
ace in the hole in case she needs support even against her brother.
Oh Sansa this is going to be good
Surprisingly I don’t find Arya’s story as fascinating. She
continues her training montage with the Faceless men who still doubt her. I can
see why, her ego is still very apparent and her responses seem very much
rehearsed words she knows they want to hear. When she sees an actor troupe
playing the politics of Kings Landing and the death of her father in ridiculous
terms, her emotion is powerfully plain to see.
(A note on the troupe though – in some ways this really
shows how the Game of Thrones IS a game of noble houses unless you’re a peasant
unlucky enough to be caught in the crossfire. They make a mockery of this
because, despite what various lords and ladies think, the actual rulers matter
little to the common people).
She is being given another mission to assassinate someone
– and she keeps asking questions. Who is good. Who is bad. Who deserves to die,
who hired the killers – these are not the questions the Faceless men should be
asking.
Which brings us to Bran.
Bran is still wandering around the memories of the past –
which includes an awesome bit of world building. The Wights were created by the
Children of the Forest. The Child of the Forest who is now with Bran,
specifically – as a weapon to try and stop humanity from consuming the whole
continent. Well that kind of backfired, though she’s definitely not sorry
In another of his wanderings he spies on the Night King –
who can see him. And touch him
Now marked the vast and utterly terrifying army of Wights
(seriously this is absolutely horrifying depiction. The Walking Dead has nothing on this) launches at the mound and the
tree. Bran’s people rally: the Children of the Forest can’t come close to
stopping the overwhelming numbers. Even a barrier of fire doesn’t stop them
just digging through the mounds. Summer the dire wolf is overwhelmed and dies.
The Children of the Forest die. The Raven in his tree dies. That leaves Meera
to try and get Bran out of the mound through the escape tunnel.
That leaves Hodor to… hold the door. Bran, lost in his
vision of the past, sees Willis (young Hodor) collapse while Meera screams at
Hodor to hold the door so she can get Bran to safety. We repeatedly hear Meera
yell as young Hodor has a seizure and repeatedly says “hold the door” becoming
more and more indistinct until it becomes “Hodor”…. Hodor holds the door as
they escape and the White walkers overwhelm him. His whole life he has been
chanting the moment of his death
And lo, the show that brought us the Red Wedding still
has the power to throw an emotional sledge hammer. I’m giving high fangs to
this episode for that scene alone because that’s devastating
